The site offers more than twenty areas of Spanish and bilingual content and will cover original news articles from Spanish language news sources like EFE, Nomex, and the Associated Press, plus music from artists like Daddy Yankee, Ricky Martin and RBD in the “Sessiones @ AOL” section, and updates about the latest Hispanic Hollywood celebrities like America Ferrera, Sofia Vergara and George Lopez. The site also features a community area called Tu Gente complete with blogs, message boards, and chat.

“U.S. Hispanic Internet users are the fastest-growing community online, and what better way to tap into them than with a new free portal,” said Ralph Rivera, VP and general manager of AOL Latino in a statement. The portal also expands the reach for advertisers, who will gain access to content areas like news, entertainment, and finance.

AOL also intends to add parental controls to the list of free services.

It’s Chase Card Services’ new credit card campaign designed to tap into the 43.5 million person Spanish-language market. Chase is developing TV ads with Hispanic advertising agency Lapiz and online ads with T3 (The Think Tank). Chase has long used Spanish language direct marketing and provided bilingual customer support, but this is Chase’s first foray into Spanish-language TV and websites.

“Chase has a significant Hispanic customer base, but we can do a better job of connecting with them,” said Chase Card Services CEO Carter Franke in a statement. “In talking with current and prospective Hispanic customers during consumer research, we found that we must move to an integrated, Spanish-language marketing effort that is culturally relevant to Hispanics to increase credit card penetration with this audience. We listened very closely to what our customers wanted as we created both our marketing and servicing strategies.”

Spanish TV spots will begin appearing on Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, and Galavision this week, while online ads will appear on AOL Latino, MSN Latino, Terra Online, and Univision Online.

While traditional methods such as television, radio or newspaper ads are effective approaches to market to this growing audience, engaging this community through mediums like the Internet can have a major impact on marketers’ strategies as well.

Currently, Hispanic purchasing power in the U.S. is more than $700 billion and like never before, the Internet is influencing major purchase decisions among Hispanics.

The AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy, conducted by Synovate, shows that 68% of online Hispanics make final purchase decisions on the Internet — up from 51% in 2004. Seventy-seven (77%) use the medium to learn about products — up from 61% in 2004.

Everyday, more and more Hispanics get online. According to Synovate’s 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report, there are more than 16 million Hispanics online or 55% of the total U.S. Hispanic population. Of those 16 million, 77% have access to broadband. As this community becomes more familiar with the Internet, marketers must face many important questions such as, what language should be utilized when targeting this community, English or Spanish? What websites do Hispanics target? Should companies adjust their marketing messages for this community?

Acculturation: Defining the Marketplace

Unlike the general online population, Hispanics have rapidly embraced the medium and bypassed the “baby-steps.” Those who have recently discovered the Web, did so through broadband and not the traditional dial-up services. They watch and send video content, send instant messages and even talk on the phone via the Internet. However, looking at the Hispanic online market in a new way, might help marketers better understand how to effectively target the diversity among this population.

According to the 2006 AOL Latino Hispanic Cyberstudy, habit and cultural relevancy define Internet usage for Hispanics. Mostly acculturated, partially acculturated and relatively unacculturated online Hispanics consume the Internet in different ways, offering new options to marketers wanting to reach the Hispanic market.

The study shows that 81% of Hispanics online are mostly acculturated or partially acculturated, while only 19% is relatively unacculturated. But being acculturated doesn’t necessarily mean English is the language of choice. Nearly half of the acculturated segment find Spanish content appealing; of the unacculturated segment 37% prefer both languages. Of the total Hispanic online population, only 15% prefer Spanish only. It’s all about finding the right balance.

Galan Entertainment’s president Nely Galan is no stranger to episodic video or to the Spanish-language market. She’s the former vice president of entertainment for the Telemundo Network, and has produced more than 600 English and Spanish-language television episodes, including the Fox reality show The Swan.

“I started Galan Entertainment launching new TV channels into Latin America,” said Galan in a statement. “Now, we’re at the forefront of the digital age, producing entertainment content for new platforms such as mobile phones and iPods.” Each episode of “La Traductora” will be about 90-120 seconds long. HBO hopes the episodes will not only entertain, but also help Hispanic viewers remember important English words and phrases that will help them communicate in the U.S.

The results of that survey have revealed that more than ninety percent of the respondents anticipate corporate ad spending targeting Latinos to increase in 2007, while more than thirty percent are predicting budget growth of more than ten percent.

An overwhelming majority consider data from the 2000 Census to be the most significant milestone in contributing to the growth of the more than $5 billion US Hispanic advertising industry. However, more than eighty percent of respondents agree that persuading clients to invest more of their ad dollars in this market is the greatest challenge facing US Hispanic advertising agencies.

“It is an ongoing process to educate corporate marketers about the value of marketing to Latinos as more than just a project but an integral part of every marketing plan,” said Carl Kravetz, Chairman of AHAA and Chairman/Chief Strategic Officer of cruz/kravetz:IDEAS. “We need to move beyond the ‘why,’ however, and begin to discuss the ‘how’ — partnering with clients to engage this brand-loyal audience and connect emotionally with them using the language of cultural identity rather than getting bogged down in a debate over whether to use Spanish or English. It requires a deep understanding of the true Latino identity that Hispanic agencies are uniquely prepared to define for marketers.”

Segmentation of the Hispanic market is considered the leading influencer of agency business over the next five years. Kravetz attributes the evolution in US Hispanic marketing to early visionaries, as well as the founders of AHAA. Currently, the nearly one hundred AHAA member agencies serve companies like McDonalds, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and Verizon.

Twistbox currently distributes mobile programming via WAP portals, SMS campaigns, mobile TV channels, and games to over forty countries. The initial launch of the deal with Latin World Entertainment will take place in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, and Peru.

“With clients such as Editorial Televisa that publish leading magazines, such as Cosmopolitan en Espanol, Vanidades and Maxim en Espanol, to the hottest celebrities on TV that include Sofia Vergara and Danna Garcia, Latin World Entertainment represents the leading brands and talent in the Latino community,” said Twistbox CEO Ian Aaron. “Our partnership will extend LWE’s existing on-line initiatives to mobile and bring compelling programming that includes premium SMS campaigns, mobile TV, games and community applications to operators in the U.S., Latin America and Spain.”

Luis Balaguer, President and CEO of Latin World Entertainment, felt that with his company’s management, marketing, and production focus in the Latin market, paired with Twistbox’s international background, the mobile project offers an opportunity to drive Latinos and create success.

There are currently between seventy-five and one hundred million individuals in Latin America alone who have the capability to access mobile content.

According to an Advertising Age and MPA Hispanic Market Research compiled study in September 2005, 65.2% of marketers will increase their online ad spending in this market. This translates into higher competition for the current available traffic. Knowing what and where to spend ad dollars is critical for online direct response marketers.

Hispanics are going online to research, communicate and buy many different items and they are extremely brand loyal. The internet is used much more as a resource for many activities by Hispanics when compared to the general US market.

Finance:
Fifty five percent of the US Hispanic population uses the internet as a resource to research financial information including banking, mortgages and loan consolidation according to a recent AOL/Roper study. The 2005 report cited a lack of Spanish language content as an issue expressed by those surveyed. While a few key players in the mortgage lead generation game have emerged, a simple keyword search for a broad term such as “hipoteca” which means mortgage in Spanish results in a few paid results versus searching for “mortgage” in English.

The results for the Spanish version of the word also show quite a few English creative along with English landing pages. This is where many marketers still do not understand the market and how to approach it. The translations should be carried through the entire engagement with the end user.

Education:
The same study shows that US Hispanics consider sending their children to college as a major financial goal. This is an opportunity for online colleges to target these parents and future students with highly customized campaigns. Since most US Degree schools offer English only programs, they will be happy to know that the generation that they are targeting is the most acculturated and English dominant. However, smart marketers have an opportunity to target the parents who may be footing the bill which can be done both in English and Spanish.

Health:
The internet is seen as the number one medium of choice for researching health information by US Hispanics. According to the 2005 AOL/Roper study, fifty four percent of online Hispanics believe that researching their health issues or conducting medical price comparisons on the internet is the way to go. ComScore media metrics reports that during June 2006, 34.4% have visited content within the health category.

There is an opportunity here for health insurance, health discount, alternative medicines and many other lead generation and sales centric products within the health vertical. A search for the broad term “seguro” which means insurance results in less than 2 pages worth of sponsored listings, most of which are in English. Searching for a more specific term resulted in 4 listings, only one of which was in Spanish. The same specific search in English resulted in over 20 pages, more than 200 sponsored results in English.

Sports:
US Hispanics keep abreast of sports as a way of remembering or honoring their family’s original nationality via their country of origin’s teams. In June 2006, Univision.com’s web site traffic jumped to nearly one million daily visits and over 12 million unique browsers as a result of their comprehensive coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cupâ„¢ The site delivered nearly 400 million pages of content in June, over a 300% increase from page views delivered during the 2002 event.

The opportunity for capturing sports enthusiasts is not limited to the World Cup event. Nearly 40% of US Hispanics are avid sports fans year-round according to an SGMA 2006 study.

US Hispanics are leveraging their buying power online and the savvy marketer who taps into this growing trend will be presenting the successful case studies of the future.

Stay tuned for a look into careers, music and entertainment, cosmetics and travel and what the numbers say about how Hispanics are consuming information and purchasing in these areas.

But if numbers must be the totem of success, the Latino population has planted its flag in the marketplace, and has capitalized on the power of the Web. According to a 2005 AOL/ Roper ASW Hispanic Cyberstudy, 63% of online Hispanics, ages 18-34, want to own their own business vs. 36% of the online general population. Additionally, 47% of online Hispanics are very or somewhat likely to invest more in 2005.

But AOL Latino seemed to have realized the promise of this entrepreneurial market ahead of time, having formed an immediate partnership with Ford Motor Company in 2004. Together, the two entities launched a co-branded site, coined Mi Negocio (“My Business”), which serves as an online hub for Latino entrepreneurs and emphasizes community in the process.

In 2005, the companies took their relationship and cause to the next level by launching an Apprentice-style elimination contest that would award $100,000 in cash prizes and a Mercury Mountaineer to the most driven, entrepreneurially-focused participant.

Leading the sales and advertising front at AOL Latino is Mark Lopez, who himself had worked in senior-level positions at companies like Terra Networks and J2 Communications prior to moving up the ranks at AOL. Lopez, who also happens to be an MIT Business grad, fits the mold of both a motivated exec and as a legitimate voice in his community. Recently, ADOTAS had a lengthy chat with Lopez to discuss the purpose of and current goings on at his outfit, and how he views the Latino online marketplace today.

Hi, Mark. So what’s the background on AOL Latino and Mi Negocio? What services does it provide?

Mark: With Mi Negocio, we’re in the third year of the site that we’re doing with Ford and it targets Hispanic small businesses, giving them the tools and some of the insight to really grow their small business or if they’re thinking of starting their own small business. It gives them pointers on how to get started and it gives them sort of a network of other folks that are either other services or like them starting out. So it provides a forum that, three years ago when we started the site, wasn’t available. So we’ve grown the audience and tools available to our users significantly.

Was this something that there was a demand for at the time or was this something where you guys were thinking ahead of the curve, saying that this is really a burgeoning demographic online and it would be good to jump on it before other people do?

A Hispanic audience…is very entrepreneurial in nature, so I think that the need for a hub or a network has always existed. What we know is that within a lot of networks and outside the Internet for a number of years, there wasn’t anything national that really attracts the small business segment. So Ford felt very strongly, and we felt very strongly, that the creation of a site like Mi Negocio could definitely help the small businesses on a national level.

“Marketers want alternatives. We assemble a smaller but targeted ad network that at the end is what is most effective in new media,” said HispanoClick CEO Marc Duquette in a statement. “In growth markets such as the Hispanic space, there are many advertisers who don’t see a global media network as the best solution to reach audiences in the Spanish speaking world. We provide advertisers with an additional and efficient media vehicle to reach the US Latino market, as well as international Spanish language markets.”

According to comScore, one in three Spanish-speaking Internet users in the US will visit a site on the HispanoClick network in a given month. HispanoClick’s publishers span the entire gamut of online resources and services from arts and entertainment to shopping, sports and travel.

Now, visitors to all HDN sites, which include digital editions of Miami’s Diario Las Americas, Chicago’s La Raza, Houston’s Semana, and San Diego’s El Latino, can now conduct searches via a Yahoo branded search box located at the top and bottom of each portal. In response to search queries, users will be served both Yahoo Web and sponsored search results.

“In this era of information overload, Yahoo! enables users to easily find what they are looking for online and provides advertisers with a way to reach those users at their moment of interest,” said Peter Celeste, regional general manager, Yahoo! Search Marketing Americas, in a statement. “This agreement highlights just one of the many exciting opportunities Yahoo! and HDN are exploring together to provide users and advertisers with a world-class Internet experience.”

According to comScore Media Metrix, May 2006, Yahoo boasts 12.8 million U.S. Hispanic visitors per month. In May 2006, Yahoo, NBC Universal Television Group and Telemundo combined their U.S. Hispanic Internet properties to form the co-branded Yahoo! Telemundo.